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I was going to make a post about my favorite photos I’ve taken this year, but instead decided to switch it up and make this little montage of my iphone pictures! Lots of cars, puppies, beer, and randomness!

Lots of big things happening in 2012 with me and all the guys here at V2LAB, so get excited!

Over here in the states, it’s a rare sight to see an R34, and funnily enough even more rare to see one that’s not a GTR. When I got to Australia, my head exploded with all of the R34s driving around. There were stock ones, modded ones, ones with 4 doors, and I even saw an old lady driving one! Over there, R34s are just regular cars, like civics are to us. So much so that there are lots of poorly modded ricer looking ones driving around.

This car is not one of those. John Huynh knows a thing or 2 about modding a car. John was nice enough to pick me up and give me a ride around Melbourne to meet up with Vyet Le to go out for a photoshoot. After some cop trouble and Vyet’s car getting defected, we finally got to shoot, and this is what we came up with!

I suck at writeups. The owner of this awesome R32 GTR, François Thériault Rehel, on the other hand, could write a book about his car. Conveniently for me, he did just that!

Since its importation in 2009, the car has been through many changes each year. Most of the modifications that had been done to it in Japan where retained But an another 500 hours of work were done to the car by the owner himself in his home garage, completing over 90% of the overall work to it. The goal for the global feel of the car was to make it look like time attack cars of Japan, with many aero parts.

The car sports the classic array of Nismo body enhancements: hood lip, bumper vents, headlights, side pods, trunk lip As well as many carbon fiber aero parts: Serubeku canards, AB Flug front diffuser, Top Secret rear diffuser, Attain rear bumper guard.
Chassis wise, the car is setup to not only keep up with the best on the track, but beat them silly, while still being street friendly

It is riding on HKS coilovers custom valved by Selex Suspension, while every single suspension components where upgraded to beefier, solid, adjustable variants,
The setup was then perfectly corner balanced and aligned at VAG Motorsport, for that perfect steering feel and predictability. The unreliable 4 wheel steering HICAS system was completely removed from the car. It also has many stiffening equipment from Cusco, lower chassis brace, rear strut tower/trunk brace, customized roll bar, and a front strut tower brace from Nismo.

The wheels are Work Emotion CR Kai in 17×9 f&r, but the set wasn’t destined for a GTR’s body since it came off a Nissan S13, so spacers were added to achieve a square final offset of +13. Wrapping them are 265/40/R17 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec tires all around. Front and rear fenders were rolled to allow all this rubber to fit.

To endure all the track abuse, the braking system was also beefed up, the 324mm Brembo setup up front was transferred directly from an R33 GTR, with custom brake lines. At the rear lies another story, Brembo callipers where taken from a Subaru STI, bolted unto custom brackets, fitted over special Garage Saurus 330mm rotors surrounded by custom made back plates, with custom brake lines, pads are from Hawk’s HP+ series.

(It actually shoots flames on the track, the cardboard flames are just for car shows )

In the engine bay, much as changed also, although the engine block remains stock, all major parts were powder coated either deep blue or satin black. Under the twin turbo pipe lies a set of R34 GTR N1 turbos sucking air from an Apex’i Power Intake kit and pushing it into a large Greddy intercooler via Greddy hardpiping, expelling extra pressure via a set of HKS special edition SSQV blow off valves. Fuel is delivered by a Nismo fuel pump through a Nismo FPR and SARD 720cc injectors, while Splitfire coilpacks deliver the spark. Valve timing is adjusted by HKS cams and cam gears, and boost controlled by an HKS EVCS electronic controller. Exhaust gases are expelled by R34 dump pipes, a Nismo downpipe, a test pipe and out of an HKS LEGAL cat back.

Tuned by Robin Almasi @ Almasi Tuning, this setup yielded a respectable 490hp @ 7200rpm @ 15,5psi on the dyno but with the catback removed, power output climbed to 512hp.
All this on a stock motor and ECU with just over 1 bar of boost, and perfect reliability.
With such power, temperatures on the track had to be kept to a minimum, so cooling was addressed by upgrading the radiator to KOYO aluminium unit. Coolers were added, one for the engine oil and another for power steering, from Toyorad and Hayden respectively. Even custom cooling ducts were fabricated for the brakes.

The interior is very daily driveable since creature conforts remain, like the AC, stereo, and sound deafening front seats were swapped with those of an R34 GTR while the rears were replaced with a custom storage deck a modified Cusco roll bar protects the driver, while a Sabelt 5 point cam style racing harness holds him in place a unique OMP Corsica special edition steering wheel, spaced by a Sparco 50mm spacer helps the driver point the car in the right direction instrument clusters were swapped with Nismo units while an Autometer boost gauge and AEM UEGO wideband were added a Skylab TSC and HKS turbo timer and boost controller help the driver select various electronic settings.

It’s hard not to fall in love with this car when you drive and feel the Nismo solid shift and twin plate clutch, every aspect of its performance has been improved while still keeping it a very streetable machine, even on the extremely bad roads of Quebec.

This car is mostly used for lapping, but was signed up for 2 time attack events during the passing summer, and reached the podium in both in street class

For more info on the build, follow the original build thread 125.000 views strong

Shot Alain’s car for S3 a while back. Probably the fastest and most efficient shoot ever lol. The whole thing lasted no more than 20 minutes. We were trying to beat the impending thunderstorm, and we just made it, barely!

Last time I was up in Canada I met up with a few friends from Montreal to take some pics. This Jetta belongs to Sergio, one of the guys behind Eurokracy, Montreal’s biggest Euro show. Definitely going to try to make it up there next year summer.

While I was in NJ at First Class Fitment, I went out on a little shoot with some fellow photographers to shoot Jason’s awesome MKV. I hadn’t been anywhere other than down here in FL to see the leaves change in years, so I took full advantage! I also took a rig shot which I am working on now and will be posting soon